In the second installment of our 2012 Employment Law Updates, our guest Guest Contributor, Stephanie R. Thomas, Ph.D. offers additional insights into what we can expect in the coming year.
Wage and Hour
I’m predicting that wage and hour issues will continue to be a hot-button issue next year. The Department of Labor has launched The Misclassification Initiative and recently has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Internal Revenue Service. Under this agreement, the Department of Labor and the IRS will work together and share information to reduce the incidence of employee misclassification, to help reduce the tax gap, and to improve compliance with federal labor laws.
Additionally, eleven states have signed similar memoranda with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, and in some cases the Employee Benefits Security Administration, OSHA, OFCCP and the Office of the Solicitor. According to the Department of Labor, these memoranda will enable the Department to share information and to coordinate enforcement efforts with participating states to “level the playing field for law-abiding employers and to ensure that employees receive the protections to which they are entitled under federal and state law.” I’m expecting that more states will enter into similar agreements with the Department of Labor during 2012.
Upcoming State Regulations
These are only some of the regulatory changes we’re likely to see at the federal level during 2012. We haven’t talked about the changes we may see from OSHA, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the rest of the federal regulators, and we haven’t mentioned the regulatory changes coming at the state level. California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, Utah and Washington are just some of the states with labor and employment-related regulatory changes coming.
“Regulation” is the 2012 buzz word.
Regulation is likely to pose a significant challenge for employers in 2012. To meet this challenge, it’s important to stay on top of what’s happening on the regulatory front. Take advantage of the many newsletters, blogs and white papers that will inevitably be written and the webinars that will be held, and check in with the regulators’ websites. The EEOC and the Department of Labor (including all of the sub-agencies) have entire sections of their websites dedicated to compliance assistance. They even offer an email service that will send important updates right to your inbox. Once you fall behind, it can be hard to catch up. Make a New Year’s Resolution to check in routinely on what’s happening, and you’ll be able to get – and stay – compliant.
Guest Contributor:
Stephanie R. Thomas, Ph.D., is the CEO of Thomas Econometrics. She specializes in the quantitative analysis of discrimination. Dr. Thomas has authored numerous papers published in professional journals and regularly speaks to legal and industry groups on litigation avoidance, the use of statistics in litigation, equal employment opportunity and affirmative action compliance issues, and the statistical analysis of employment decisions.
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